Tips for Buying Furniture: When to Go High & When to Go Low

I’m both the best and the worst person to be writing a post on when to go cheap and when to spend money on a more high-end piece when buying furniture. Worst because in the 18 years that I’ve been a homeowner, I’ve made more mistakes spending money on the wrong things for my home than I care to admit. Just ask my husband (umm…on second thought, let’s keep this issue buried…). But I’m also the best person because I’ve learned a ton from my past mistakes and (knock on wood) haven’t made any of those big mistake purchases in many years.

Pretty much every single room in our house is a mix of low end (thrifted pieces, IKEA, etc.) and higher-end (more expensive, often custom order) furniture and accessories. Our living room is a good example of this low-high mix (see full resource list at end of post for sources):

I’m a big believer in buying quality, high-end pieces as you can, even if it’s only one piece every couple of years. The cost of continually replacing low-cost furniture that’s poorly made can quickly add up to the cost of one high quality piece that you may have for a lifetime. If you’re thinking about buying a higher-end piece of furniture but are unsure whether or not you should, I’m sharing five deciding factors to help you make the call:

1. Be sure you can easily afford it

This one’s a no-brainer but also super important. It’s easy to get wrapped up in finding the most beautiful piece of furniture you’ve ever seen without giving yourself a reality check on whether you can easily afford it. Because as much as you and I love furniture and design, I think we can agree that there are more important things in life – if buying an expensive piece of furniture comes at the expense of a family vacation or the stress of neverending interest from a balance on a high interest credit card, simply don’t do it. Save your money for a few more years and buy it when it’s not going to be a stress on your household budget – you’ll enjoy that furniture piece all the more when you can buy it with 100% excitement and no stress or lifestyle compromises.

It was for this very reason that we have an IKEA sofa in our living room instead of the more high-end sofa that I was lusting over. We had just moved into our house and were sofa-less so we wanted a new one fairly quickly but as those of you who have moved several states away know, you pretty much bleed money for the first several months after moving. Dropping $1,000+ on a new sofa was going to be a stress on our budget and we were under enough stress with the move as it was so it was IKEA to the rescue! And guess what? We love our IKEA couch – it’s been a great purchase!

2. You have to love, love, love it!

You can’t just like it a lot or kinda love it – if you’re shelling out some good money for a higher-end furniture piece, you have to be 100% in complete and utter love with it. It’s so tempting to settle for something that you like a lot but isn’t exactly what you want when you’re sick of shopping around and just want to be done furnishing a room. Don’t do it – be patient and wait – most of the best rooms are ones where the pieces were collected over time instead of bought all at once anyway. You’ll eventually find that “forever” piece that you always wanted.

When I was on the hunt for a pair of chairs for the living room in our old house, it took forever. Like seriously forever. At many times I just wanted to throw in the towel and buy the best chairs I’d seen even though I wasn’t totally in love with them. My husband was the one who kept saying we should keep looking. I’m so glad we did because eventually we stumbled upon these slipcovered swivel chairs that both of us fell in love with (and still love six years later!):

3. If what you’re buying will stay with the house when you move (built-in furniture, tile, etc.), make sure it’s something that will increase resale value

If you plan on staying in your home for the next 25+ years, then this issue isn’t a big concern for you but if, like us, there’s a good chance you’ll be moving in the next 5-10 years, consider what making that high-end purchase will do to your home’s resale value.  If your purchase is something that will either increase your home’s resale value or at least make your home more appealing to potential buyers so that it might sell faster, then great – go for it! If the purchase is something you love but is really taste-specific and 90% of other people won’t really care for it, skip it.

Our fireplace tile is a good example of a higher-end item that will obviously stay with our house when the day comes for us to move. When I was searching for new tile for our fireplace, I fell hard for this stunning tile from Walker Zanger’s Sterling Row collection the moment that I saw it:

Our old fireplace had cracked, dated tile (you can see the “before” {here}) and while I could have found a decent inexpensive tile to replace it with, there’s no way that it would the same impact as using this stunning luxury tile.

It completely transformed the look and feel of our living room (and honestly, our whole house since this is the room that you first see when you walk in) and literally every single person who’s visited our house since we remodeled the fireplace remarks on how much they love the tile within 30 seconds of stepping foot inside. I know that when the time comes for us to move, our choice to use this higher-end tile will have been a smart one.

4. Make sure it’s something you see yourself still loving in 20+ years

If you find yourself falling in love with an expensive couch in a funky, very trendy upholstered fabric, it’s probably not a smart buy. I know people often say that they’ll just have something reupholstered if they get sick of it but have you ever gotten a quote for reupholstering? It can be about as much as buying a whole new piece of furniture. Instead, invest in a less trendy piece that you see yourself loving for years to come and just get some pillows made in that funky, trendy fabric that you love.

Every single one of our higher end purchases (excluding those mistake purchases 10+ years ago!) have a classic, timeless design with this tall china cabinet in our family room being one of my favorites. We bought it several years back and it’s something I can’t imagine ever falling out of love with or worrying about it going out of style:

5. Be comfortable with the return policy if you’re buying a custom piece

Often when you custom order a piece of furniture, you might have seen a swatch of the fabric or a sample of the wood finish but haven’t ever seen the exact piece that you’re ordering in person. Speak with the person/store that you’re ordering from to find out the return policy if it arrives and you don’t like it. Often custom pieces can’t be returned so you need to be comfortable with that and 100% sure you’ll be happy with it.

I got burned once many years ago ordering a custom piece that I disliked but couldn’t return so when I custom ordered our leather living room ottoman, I was adamant about only ordering it if I could return it back to the store if I didn’t like it. Thankfully they agreed because when the ottoman came, the leather was a very different shade than the sample I had been shown. They accepted the return at their store and we reordered the ottoman in a different color leather that ended up being exactly what I was looking for. It would have made me sick to have paid a good amount of money for a new leather ottoman and have not been happy with it.

That pretty much sums up the mix of deciding factors that swirl around my brain when I’m deciding whether to go high or low. And whether you buy high or low, here are a few more tidbits of advice on buying home furnishings in general:

• Never pay full price. Seriously! There isn’t a single piece of furniture in my entire house that I paid full price for (other than HomeGoods finds). Everything goes on sale eventually!
• Don’t impulse buy. There will always be another sale so if you’re not 100% sure on buying something don’t get pressured into it by a great sale.
• Go cheap on things you like to change up. For me, that’s art and accessories – I love to change them around seasonally and when the mood strikes me. Inexpensive at-home art printables (you can see my favorites, including the ones on my mantel {here}) are great because I can change up my art for only about $5 and zero guilt!

So what about you guys – do you have any tips or advice from your own furniture buying experience to share? Comment away!

Paint color: Modified version of Sherwin Williams Keystone Gray – find the exact formula at the bottom of {this post} | sofa – IKEA EKTORP – more info {here} | linen swivel chairs & ottoman – mine are from Lee Industries but {these} are very similar | woven tray on ottoman – Pottery Barn (no longer available) | fireplace tile – Sterling Row Wingtip Charcoal | firewood basket | rattan bar cart – mine was a Craigslist find but you can find it {here} | side table – mine was a HomeGoods find but you can also find it {here} | horse art print | let’s stay home art print | bunny art print – no longer available |round mirror (similar) | china cabinet – Thomasville (no longer available) | Plaid throw – no longer available